It was supposed to be out by now. Rocked by activist investors, including former CEOs, and battered by the pandemic, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield announced plans to sell by the end of 2023 the U.S. business it had bought for $16B. Officially, the song remains the same. But with the date to close out its U.S. business already gone, URW remains a major player in the U.S. mall market, with 16 schemes across the country. Some assets have been sold as planned. But much of the remaining portfolio doesn't look like the costly burden it appeared to be in 2020 and 2021. The question now is whether it still makes sense to dispose of a collection of malls that, as the market recovers, appear to be on the up. 
“If you just look at the market in general and the Westfield situation, they have divested certain properties, mostly the ones that weren't performing and where the loan was higher than the value of the center, and they have made some smart decisions,” Read the full story here. | 
